


daybreak.

by miloron (ocoa)



Series: Canvas [1]
Category: NU'EST, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: AU - University, Based off Daybreak MV, M/M, Mentions of some Pristin members, One-Sided Attraction, Work in progress so some P101 members might appear depending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2018-12-26 03:06:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12049983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocoa/pseuds/miloron
Summary: Jonghyun loses Minhyun to Minkyung.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up with plot suggestions or anything at my [askFM page](https://ask.fm/bugiron) hoho

"J-ah," Minhyun says one fateful morning, his voice startlingly happy in a manner that he hasn't been for the past week when he had begun to worry about his end of year project. It's this sudden shift that has Jonghyun look up from his book, half asleep from the lull of fantasy and the warmth of the spring sun. "I found her."

And he smiles, the way he always does, with his eyes crinkling into slits that still let the sparkle of his eyes through. Jonghyun looks at him, and smiles, even when something shifts and settles awkwardly in his chest. "Your new muse? Congrats, Min."

Minhyun giggles, maybe cackles, and Jonghyun knows he's smitten because it's different from the past few girls that Minhyun had ever crushed on. "Her name's Minkyung. You know her don't you? She's a second year from Linguistics."

Jonghyun blinks and tries to remember. "If she's from linguistics you should ask Nayoung, or I don't know, Siyeon. She does have the connections to set you up."

Minhyun giggle-cackles again, and almost wiggles off, with a quick agreement to his idea. "Man just thinking about her makes me really want to draw again."

Jonghyun smiles, genuinely, and sincerely, and really happy for his friend.

Except he's not.

He shakes the wooden feeling in his chest, and tries to get back to Stardust. The words swim, and he sighs, shutting the book. Chancing a glance into the garden, he sees Minhyun, lips quirking into a smile as he painted.

 _"Hold these," Minhyun said, eyes furrowing in concentration as he thrusted a small bouquet at Jonghyun. They were old, Jonghyun thinks, because the leaves had started to curl and the colour fade. Still, he holds them, and watches Minhyun stalk around him. He looked different than usual. Stressed. Minhyun let's out a frustrated sigh, nearly throwing his pencil down, the instrument clattering down from the easel. "I can't do this, sorry Jonghyun, I think I need to go out._ "

_Jonghyun doesn't manage to say a word, and watches as Minhyun all but runs out. He looked at the bouquet in his hands._

Jonghyun turned to where the bouquet sat on his desk, dried and brittle from the weeks since. He held up the branches, and he realises that his smile had long disappeared.

He wiped the edges of his eyes with the pads of his fingertips, before picking up his book.

This was karma, he thinks, because it was always a bad idea to fall in love with Hwang Minhyun. 


	2. Chapter 2

The first day they met was in middle school, when Jonghyun walks to school with Minki and Dongho and sees Minhyun on happenstance. In the spring wind the leaves fall around him like green snow, and Jonghyun remembers thinking vaguely that the boy was handsome. Minki seemed to think so too, since he says that directly to Minhyun, kickstarting what would become a decade long friendship.

It was comfortable to be with Minhyun, sitting beside him as he draws and Jonghyun reads, feeling both centred against the warmth of Minhyun's body beside his and lost in the never ending reaches of literature.

"Hey Jonghyun," Minhyun says one day, while Jonghyun's eyes are half-lidded against the shine of the summer's day without Minki's endless chatter and Dongho's booming laugh to help him stay awake, "can I draw you?"

Jonghyun blinked slowly, before the request catches up to him, and he looks at the sharply pointed pencil resting against the crook of Minhyun's fingers. "You want to?"

It's a strike of self doubt, one that doesn't hit him often since it wasn't like he was on either spectrum of beauty, but when Minhyun sketches it's always something ethereally beautiful that feels like the rustling of trees or the gentle touch of the first snowflake in winter as it touches South Korean asphalt. Something that veers between fragile and consuming. Something that Jonghyun never thought would apply to him.

Minhyun smiled, the way he always did when Jonghyun tells him of a new story that he particularly liked, with his eyebrows deepening in its inner corner and a soft sparkle in his eye. "Yeah I want to."

The steadiness makes Jonghyun stumble, and his chest stutter, and Jonghyun feels a shy smile as he licks his lips in a nervous tick. "Ok, how do you want me to pose?"

Minhyun shrugged. "Maybe not now," he says, "just wanted your consent."

Jonghyun relaxes, before teasing him slightly in an over-exaggerated girlish lilt, "Ah Minhyun-goon, if you wanted, you could have just asked me out for dinner!"

Minhyun bursts out laughing, and the sound strikes Jonghyun in the chest.

Oh.

So that's what it was like.

It hits him hard, then, that he loved Minhyun, and that the story of Romeo and Juliet seemed to make much more sense than it did before. If this was what they felt, Jonghyun thought while slowly feeling his way around the warmth that spread across his chest, the drug-like feeling that made his head spin and the smile remain on his lips, then he understood their actions.

It would be later in the solitary of his room that he would taste the words of his lips, saying softly into the ringing silence, "I love Hwang Minhyun" and feeling the blush as it dusted his cheeks. It stung his eyes and twisted his chest, but he can't stop saying it because this feeling was a blessing and a curse.

It was days later when Aaron looks at him with furrowed brows and smiles sadly. "It's okay, Jonghyun," he says, as he pulls Jonghyun's forehead into the crook of his neck and holds him, letting Jonghyun sob into his shirt. "It's okay."

But it was never okay, and it would never be okay for the following years.

Especially when Minhyun finds Minkyung, and all Jonghyun is left with is a bouquet of withered flowers and an unfinished book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh changing my writing style is painful. But it will be important, as the story continues. I decided to cut the story up to make it a series, so,,, ;) 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed :)


	3. Chapter 3

Minkyung is a nice girl, bright, preppy. She's a bit of a party animal, and Minhyun disappears with her to parties but she knows how to hold him back and keeps him from stumbling home drunk and barely coherent. She's responsible, and good at holding conversations with even Jonghyun who can barely talk about anything but the books he's read and the games he plays. And she being a colour into Minhyun's art, which Jonghyun learns when he walks past Minhyun's door, left ajar like he forgot to close it.

He sees the painting before he sees Minhyun, catching the strikes of red and blue, soft and tentative in the sunlight that filters through Minhyun's blinds, and Jonghyun knows it's her. He watches Minhyun paint, knows the face he wears, feels the turbulence in his chest that forces him to look away and walk away.

"Jonghyun?"

He freezes, turning to look at Minhyun. "Yeah?"

Minhyun grins, "you don't need to get dinner for me tonight, I'm going out with Kyungie."

His voice is so happy that Jonghyun can't help but smile and nod. "Have fun," he says, and he means it, even though the words feel weird on his lips and his body too stiff. "Don't try to show off and drink too much again."

Minhyun snorted, his ears turning red with the reminder about the first time Minkyung brought him out. "It was one time, I don't drink anymore." His lips curled and he grimaced. "I don't even like the taste."

Jonghyun huffed a laugh, before waving him off. He felt his facade breaking, knowing that the only reason Minhyun continues to go was because Minkyung enjoyed it. He quickly turned before Minhyun saw, and his smile dropped the moment the door of his room closed. He sunk down, pulling his legs to himself. It's late spring, but the air felt cold on his skin.

He let out a soft exhaling breath, and clenched his eyes closed. Something settles in his chest and he pulled out his phone, sending a quick message.

To: Choi(ce)  
Can we go out?

Minki answers almost immediately, because Minki always had a knack for knowing when Jonghyun needed out.

From: Choi(ce)  
A's in kr nw  
wanna try 2 gt free fd ;)

He managed a smile, and sent an ok, grabbing his bag and jacket. As he left he gave a passing look to Minhyun who returned to his painting. His face was serious, lips turned straight, focused. He got paint on his cheeks and shirt, smudged across his chest in vibrant hues. A memory of carbon stained fingerprints hit Jonghyun, and he forced it down and looked away. He pulled the door closed carefully, but the click hits him as if he slammed it.

Shaking it off, he left.

He doesn't entertain the thought that maybe Minhyun would notice.


	4. Chapter 4

_Aaron isn't the only one who knows, Dongho knows too, when he sees the way Jonghyun smiles at Minhyun, or the way the doodles Minhyun draw start to buildup in the cluttered mess of Jonghyun's house. He knows all this, and he knows that's where it stops. "You won't be happy," he tells Jonghyun, back when Minhyun proposed that they live together. Jonghyun knows this, but can't reject the offer. He makes excuses for himself, but Dongho sees through them all. After that, university makes their communication strain. But maybe that too, is an excuse._

Aaron treats them to BBQ beef, what with Minki's negotiating and his new job of journalist for the Los Angeles Times. It's been so long since Jonghyun seen Aaron, especially since he went to New York for his last year of university and decided to work somewhere near his parents. When Minki totters off to talk to someone he recognises, Aaron turns to him, and Jonghyun knows that he knows.

"Minhyun told me that he found a muse," he says, and a part of Jonghyun hates the twinge of sympathy that Aaron's voice holds, but he'd been hiding his feelings for so long it's almost a relief to drop the act.

"They're dating," he said quietly, barely audible over the sizzling of meat. "She's good for him." He manages to smile, the tweak of his lips heavy and blanketed with weeks of thinking and rationalising. Aaron's face is impassive, but they've known each other for so long that Jonghyun notices the twitch of his ears enough for him to prepare himself.

"It's okay for you to be happy, Jonghyun." Aaron says, eyes looking up at him with furrowed brows. "When are you ever going to allow yourself that?"

Jonghyun's chest tightens with fondness. Aaron never was the type to tell them what to do. Jonghyun's voice comes out in a whisper. "I don't know."

Aaron looks at him, shaking his head slightly, before reaching over to his plate to stack some beef. "At least eat more," he says, "you look like a skeleton."

Jonghyun laughed at Aaron's mothering, and for once he feels the weight in his chest lift and the smile on his face doesn't settle awkwardly. The meat tastes good, as he expects, and the smile doesn't ever leave even when Aaron drops him off.

The first thing Jonghyun sees is Minkyung settled in the sofa, feet curled under her and television playing on low to cartoons. He feels his fingers tighten on the strap of his bag when he recognises the clothes she was wearing. They're Minhyun's.

She looks up and smiles. "Jonghyun-oppa," she greets, and he returns the greeting with a stilted nod.

"Where's..."

"Minhyun-oppa is washing up." Her smile turns bashful, "he said that I could stay here tonight? Since the buses have stopped..."

Jonghyun shook his head, "no it's fine, it's not safe to be out so late anyway."

She grins, relaxing with a relieved sigh. Despite himself, Jonghyun feels a touch of sadness that the girl would think he would say otherwise. He understands why though, Jonghyun wasn't always the most social person around. They never quite hit it off well.

She looks young like this, sitting on their well worn sofa with a cup of cocoa in her hands and Jonghyun sighs. He had made a decision, and this he knew was the first step.

He sits next to her. "What are you watching?"

She looks at him with barely veiled surprise, before she grins and starts to talk animatedly about the cartoon. By the time Minhyun comes out, Jonghyun likes to think him and Minkyung are at least more than strangers who see each other too often, maybe they could even be friends. They turn at the same time to look at Minhyun, half in conversation such that the smiles are still on their faces.

Minhyun blinks at them, before he beams, eyes crinkling with unadulterated joy. "What, are you stealing my girlfriend now, Jong? My heart breaks!" He clutches his chest in mock heartbreak. "I thought we were forever, Jonghyun!"

Jonghyun squashes the thought of _I thought so too_ to stare deadpan at Minhyun, before standing to shove Minhyun's shoulder. "I hope you're at least treating her well and letting her have your bed." He turned back to Minkyung and smiled, and was surprised to find it genuine. "It was nice to get to know you Minkyung."

Minkyung's lips tweaked upwards, "Good night oppa."

Jonghyun patted Minhyun's back, hesitating slightly as he did so, almost not being able to move when he feels the heavy warmth of Minhyun's back on his fingertips, and returned to his room. Dropping onto his bed, he pulled out his phone.

To: Hardline Softee  
Dongho

He took a breath, chest tightening with his fingers as they shook with the weight of the words he was about to send. This was the beginning he thinks, as much as it was the end.

To: Hardline Softee  
I think I want to stop  
I don't want to love him anymore

Because that was the case with life, where as much as every beginning was an end, an end was also a beginning. But the words strike him harder than he expects and he pulls his legs closer desperately, and let his jeans soak up the tears that crack out of his eyes.

His phone buzzes with a call.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not the end, just the end of an arc. However because I'll be having exams this will be the end for about up until December or at least late November. Hope you've enjoyed this little experimental fic (since honestly I've never actually written something based on an existing concept before so)

**Author's Note:**

> I have prelims tomorrow don't ask me why I'm posting
> 
> This will be my first multi chapter er thing, have been planning to write this since I watched Daybreak and I saw things but whelp
> 
> Just dropping this here first since I'm not exactly the most patient. I might update the chapters I've already written over the course of the month but any nwritten chapter might be on hiatus till December


End file.
